2025 YSEALI Regional Workshop: CyberSafe ASEAN

U.S. citizens are frequent victims of the Southeast Asian scam industry. According to CSIS, in 2023 Americans lost an estimated $3.5 billion to scams specifically operating from Southeast Asia and the losses to Americans are increasing.

Globally, scams involving online shopping, investment, cryptocurrency, gambling, employment, and other areas affect people in every age range, whether young or old. Some victims not only experience financial losses, they also become trafficking victims when the scammers kidnap them and force them to carry out these same scams.

This Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Regional workshop will contribute toward the international effort to combat transnational crime – specifically online scams, which fall under cybercrime, international economic crime, trafficking in persons, economic migration, and more –directly affecting the United States, the 10 ASEAN members states, and observer Timor-Leste. High-profile transnational crime from Southeast Asia has defrauded Americans and Southeast Asians out of billions of dollars, trafficked thousands of people to work in scam call centers, induced thousands more to migrate illegally for financial reasons, and funded drug cartels and other criminal organizations, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia, China, and Laos. Online scams and fraud pose significant challenges to individual security, economic stability, and societal trust within and between ASEAN countries, Timor-Leste, and the United States.

In Cambodia alone, there are an estimated 150,000-200,000 people “working” in scam compounds, of which a significant portion are young adults from ASEAN countries, China, and South Asia. The United States and the ASEAN Secretariat acknowledge online scam centers are one of ASEAN’s biggest challenges, and we are committed to working together to address the issue.

This regional workshop will help participants to avoid becoming scamming fraud and trafficking victims by teaching them cybersecurity best practices and helping them understand the complexities and challenges affecting different member states. It will also foster region-wide cooperation to promote the rule of law, strengthen relevant legal and regulatory systems in ASEAN member states, learn best practices from the United States, and ultimately prevent the victimization of Americans.

Read the full NOFO with the eligibility requirements here:

https://bit.ly/NOFOCyberSafeASEAN